Drew Harris Critised By GRA Over Dublin Riot Blunders

The Garda Representative Association has criticised the late deployment of Public Order Units at the Coolock riots last July and the riots in Dublin city centre last November.

The GRA said in a statement that Garda Commissioner Drew Harris' admission this week that wrong decisions were made back in July, is “completely at odds to what he said in the direct aftermath of the riots.”

Garda Representative Association President Mark O'Meara said that the Public Order Units should have been sent sooner and that association members are “extremely concerned over that.”

Ronan Slevin, General Secretary of the GRA, said: "Time and again the GRA expressed grave concerns at the length of time it took for the Public Order Unit to be deployed which in our view seriously put the health and safety of our frontline uniform gardaí at risk of harm and serious injury.

"Why wait over two months to make such an admission? And who will be held accountable?

“When ordinary gardaí are accused of making policing errors they immediately come under the threat of disciplinary action yet who is held accountable when mistakes are made at the very highest level?”

Mr Slevin also criticized the lack of public order training and the lack of effective safety riot equipment available to all frontline gardaí deployed to incidents of this nature, adding that “any meaningful progress has been slow to say the very least."